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VISIONS AND BELIEFS IN THE WEST OF IRELAND with Two Essays and Notes By W.B. Yeats
Excerpt from Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland: Collected and Arranged; With Two Essays and Notes
The Sidhe cannot make themselves visible to all. They are shape-changers; they can grow small or grow large, they can take what shape they choose; they appear as men or women wearing clothes of many colours, of today or of some old forgotten fashion, or they are seen as bird or beast, or as a barrel or a flock of wool. They go by us in a cloud of dust; they are as many as the blades of grass. They are everywhere; their home is in the forths, the lisses, the ancient round grass-grown mounds. There are thorn-bushes they gather near and protect; if they have a mind for a house like our own they will build it up in a moment. They will remake a stone castle, battered by Cromwell's men, if it takes their fancy, filling it with noise and lights. Their own country is Tir-nan-Og-the Country of the Young. It is under the ground or under the sea, or it may not be far from any of us. As to their food, they will use common things left for them on the hearth or outside the threshold, cold potatoes it may be, or a cup of water or of milk.
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Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
The Sidhe cannot make themselves visible to all. They are shape-changers; they can grow small or grow large, they can take what shape they choose; they appear as men or women wearing clothes of many colours, of today or of some old forgotten fashion, or they are seen as bird or beast, or as a barrel or a flock of wool. They go by us in a cloud of dust; they are as many as the blades of grass. They are everywhere; their home is in the forths, the lisses, the ancient round grass-grown mounds. There are thorn-bushes they gather near and protect; if they have a mind for a house like our own they will build it up in a moment. They will remake a stone castle, battered by Cromwell's men, if it takes their fancy, filling it with noise and lights. Their own country is Tir-nan-Og-the Country of the Young. It is under the ground or under the sea, or it may not be far from any of us. As to their food, they will use common things left for them on the hearth or outside the threshold, cold potatoes it may be, or a cup of water or of milk.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1920
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About the author
Lady Gregory
233 books83 followersIrish playwright Lady Isabella Augusta Persse Gregory wrote a number of short plays, including
Spreading the News
(1904) for the Abbey theater, which she founded and directed from 1904 to 1928.
This Irish dramatist and folklorist with William Butler Yeats and other persons co-founded the Irish literary theatre and wrote numerous short works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of books retelling stories taken from Irish mythology.
This Irish dramatist and folklorist with William Butler Yeats and other persons co-founded the Irish literary theatre and wrote numerous short works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of books retelling stories taken from Irish mythology.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 14, 2019
This was excellent!
It's a collection of stories from people around the West of Ireland as told to Lady Gregory over a couple of years. Some of them are only a paragraph long and amount to, "I've never seen them, but one killed my sister," while others are a page or two and more detailed. Most are very short. It's divided into sections, like, "charms," "blacksmiths," "butter" (which I did not know was a big thing but apparently people used magic to steal butter a lot), "monsters," and a bunch more that I can't remember and my cat is sleeping adorably on the book so I can't check. Then withing those sections there was a sort of order as well, as there were many pages within one section that were entirely devoted to sightings of big, black dogs. It was super well organized and highly readable.
It's a collection of stories from people around the West of Ireland as told to Lady Gregory over a couple of years. Some of them are only a paragraph long and amount to, "I've never seen them, but one killed my sister," while others are a page or two and more detailed. Most are very short. It's divided into sections, like, "charms," "blacksmiths," "butter" (which I did not know was a big thing but apparently people used magic to steal butter a lot), "monsters," and a bunch more that I can't remember and my cat is sleeping adorably on the book so I can't check. Then withing those sections there was a sort of order as well, as there were many pages within one section that were entirely devoted to sightings of big, black dogs. It was super well organized and highly readable.
December 11, 2021
Most of this book chronicles oral traditions of fairy lore as collected and recorded by Lady Gregory, one of the guiding lights of the Celtic Renaissance. Most of these are not "fairy tales," in the sense most people understand the term, but first person accounts of encounters with the uncanny world that co-existed with rural Ireland, like a place one might enter through Machen's Hill of Dreams but wider, wilder, and unbound by literary concerns. I don't know of any work of fiction that captures that world as well as these little tales do. Some of them are more terrifying than anything classic or modern horror writers have conceived and are closer to nightmare than artifice. Others are laced with the fine spirit of blarney and are amusing in an entirely different way. Lady Gregory's portion of this volume is completely enchanting.
The concluding essay by Yeats is less delightful though interesting in a more academic way. Yeats takes the underlying assumptions of the "fairy world" and attempts to compare them to the spiritual plane as envisioned by Swedenborg and his followers and to the effects of the post-Victorian séance room. In this exercise, he almost takes the fun out of the fairy stories, but not quite.
The concluding essay by Yeats is less delightful though interesting in a more academic way. Yeats takes the underlying assumptions of the "fairy world" and attempts to compare them to the spiritual plane as envisioned by Swedenborg and his followers and to the effects of the post-Victorian séance room. In this exercise, he almost takes the fun out of the fairy stories, but not quite.
May 31, 2020
A remarkably good 365-page book published in 1920, the fruit of many years conversations with the then Irish-speaking small farmers of south Galway and nearby north Clare. Lady Gregory was a landlord, but one long involved in the Gaelic revival, and , for some reason, people talked fairly openly to her. Certainly her own predilictions and personality filtered what she heard, but there is not a lot of author-speak or of the author in the stories. They are clear prose; basically, she says, "the very words in which the story had been told." Gregory was a mentor to Yeats, and it is interesting to compare her writing to his gushy, fulsome, ill-informed and self-centered writing on similar topics.
Sections of the book include Seers and Healers ; Away: Herbs, Charms and Wise Women: Astray, and Treasure: Banshees and Warnings: The Fighting of the Friends: Appearances: Butter: The Fool of the Forth; Forths and Sheoguey Places. There have been almost no similar books, in Irish or English. Books of individual storytellers' stories include some similar stories, but there is no colections (intelligent and well-informed) on these topics.
Sections of the book include Seers and Healers ; Away: Herbs, Charms and Wise Women: Astray, and Treasure: Banshees and Warnings: The Fighting of the Friends: Appearances: Butter: The Fool of the Forth; Forths and Sheoguey Places. There have been almost no similar books, in Irish or English. Books of individual storytellers' stories include some similar stories, but there is no colections (intelligent and well-informed) on these topics.
July 6, 2021
Lady Gregory’s collection of “stories” from people around the West of Ireland as told to her and W.B. Yeats. They are generally short Irish folktales that range from one paragraph to a couple of pages. I liked one reviewers’ description of most: "I've never seen them, but one killed my sister”. It’s fascinating what stories people will conjure to justify or give meaning to bad things happening to them or others. An apparent lack of formal education by the storytellers is important to note as you judge the credibility of the myths. The “Biddy Early” myth is captivating.
January 31, 2021
It is an extremely long, repetitive snooze fest. Has helped me fall asleep many nights. There is great value in collecting folk stories, but some editing would have been beneficial. So many of tales are identical. Not just a few either. Like hundreds saying basically the same thing about the same person (Biddy Early). It was probably not necessary to publish every tale from every person.
December 19, 2021
Excellent work and a full volume of information, history of the tales and visions and much more.
Really liked this as it ties in well with other such things and was well written.
Really liked this as it ties in well with other such things and was well written.
April 2, 2014
I do love the stories in this book; they're the inspiration behind my own fiction. The length is the only drawback, to be honest. There are many stories that are similar to each other, so to read over 300 pages with several of the same stories told in only slightly different ways can become tedious. Still, I can't ignore the influence this folklore has on me- and the influence it had on Yeats!
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August 20, 2017Well, it only took me two years to finish reading this...
Seriously. I started this in July 2015 and only just got around to finishing it. It's not really the kind of book you read all at once, but even bearing that in mind, that's a bit shameful on my part. I've set myself a challenge to try and deal with my ridiculous 'Currently Reading' shelf -- whether by finishing stuff, or by admitting that I'm never going to and removing them altogether.
Anyway, there's some interesting stuff in this, but it's not all brilliantly easy to understand. Stories are quoted as told to Lady Gregory by country people, which means they're sometimes phrased in a rather peculiar way.
Seriously. I started this in July 2015 and only just got around to finishing it. It's not really the kind of book you read all at once, but even bearing that in mind, that's a bit shameful on my part. I've set myself a challenge to try and deal with my ridiculous 'Currently Reading' shelf -- whether by finishing stuff, or by admitting that I'm never going to and removing them altogether.
Anyway, there's some interesting stuff in this, but it's not all brilliantly easy to understand. Stories are quoted as told to Lady Gregory by country people, which means they're sometimes phrased in a rather peculiar way.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews